The headline is clear. Community of Christ will provide sacramental ordinances of marriage, commitment ceremonies, and ordination independent of sexual orientation in the USA. Specifically, after two days of discussion, the USA National Conference formally approved by a required 2/3rds majority the following recommendations to the First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve: The 2013 USA […]

Salt Lake City sees General Conference every six months. In the CofChrist, “World” Conference occurs every three years, and 2013 is the lucky year. A Community of Christ World Conference is far more of a legislative exercise than its Utah LDS analogue. It features worship, of course, and normally will have approval to changes and […]

Mystery guest number 1 was never a practicing Catholic. Mystery guest number 2 never believed in Temple rites. Now, there’s a good conspiracy theory. Sometimes a conspiracy theory turns out to be true. There is even a class of crime for which people go to jail that starts out “conspiracy to commit…”. But the conspiracy theories […]

Community of Christ is attempting to form a tradition — now that its World Conferences are held every three years instead of at six month intervals as is customary in LDS practice — of having its Prophet address the church in non-Conference years in something of a “state of the church” address. Community of Christ […]

This afternoon’s post is by guest author Childe Jake. His other posts can be seen here and here. His personal blog is at http://thejakefoyer.blogspot.com/. Dear Dr. Carl Sagan, In The Demon-Haunted World, you write of a struggle that took place in your heart over whether or not there is an afterlife. You preface this struggle by introducing readers […]

As I was researching a post last summer on some of the organizations that have sprung up in the stead of the RLDS movement as fundamentalist alternatives to the Community of Christ, I discovered that a childhood friend had become one of the leading officials of one such organization, the Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of […]

Like many people who consider the Book of Mormon as scripture, I am fascinated by questions about where it has a setting in ancient historical events. I know, of course, that many other people hold it as Scripture, but are content to see it as having no origin prior to a set of 19th Century visionary […]

The LDS church is an Apostolic church. It has a Prophet, but the Prophet is chosen according to seniority of his position among the Apostles upon the death of his predecessor. Further, the Twelve in Salt Lake City are considered successors in office to the Twelve originally called by Jesus in Jerusalem. It’s a bit […]

I was in high school when the original Star Trek television series premiered. As nerdy then as I am now, I watched every episode, and every re-run, and every afternoon syndication for years. I finally stopped — not because I wasn’t interested in the Star Trek universe, which was infinitely expandable (as multiple incarnations have […]

During the past several weeks, as rebellion spread from country to country in the Middle East, a local evangelical church — whose members include several business clients and personal friends of our family — has been advertising an “end-times” series on the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy regarding the Latter Days. Some of the advertising has […]

Since March is Women’s History month, I decided to follow up to my previous article discussing female priesthood holders in Ancient Christianity, I thought it would be interesting to discuss a now discontinued practice of Mormon women anointing and blessing the sick. Did you know that Mormon women used to wash, anoint with oil, and lay […]

One hundred and fifty years after the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, the Community of Christ (then the RLDS) celebrated that event with a set of worship services in the main court of the Temple. My wife was asked to be the accompanist for the services, and so we made plans to drive from Maryland […]

Just 9 days prior to his death, Joseph Smith sent a letter to James Strang. Strang and his followers refer to this letter as the “Letter of Appointment”, believing that Joseph anointed Strang as a successor. I have always wanted to read the actual letter, and I received an email from Tim Hansen, a high priest in the […]

In discussions on the bloggernacle, the subject of how change happens in the church often comes up. We often talk past either other when it comes to defining “changes” within the church. There seem to be different views about policy vs. doctrine and why change happens in the church: View 1: Policy changes are just […]

Sparked by the religious fervor of the Second Great Awakening in the early 1820s, a humble farmer and devout reader of the Bible in upstate New York began a new religious movement that became an international church and turned many followers of Christ into a religious path of devotion and sacrifice. I’m referring, of course, to William […]

It’s a familiar story. In a nutshell, he was pondering God and had a miraculous experience. His background included Jewish and Christian teachings, but there was a “fullness” that wasn’t there. An angel appeared to him and he brought forth additional scripture; even though he was “unlearned” man. His message resonated with others and they […]

When I first started visiting Mormon Matters, there was a sidebar that would resurrect old posts for new visitors to see for the first time. One post by Jeff Spector caught my eye everytime it reappeared because it asked what people would do if they became convinced the church wasn’t true. It caught my eye […]

Just a quick recap. E. Packer gave a talk in General Conference that many considered controversial. Controversy centered around: 1) the implication that homosexuality is a choice and homosexuals can change, and 2) that the Proclamation on the Family was canonized revelation and therefore binding to members. Fueled by recent gay teen suicides in the news, […]

Some folks were surprised to hear the Ezra Taft Benson’s controversial list of 14 Fundamentals repeated twice at the most recent General Conference. What many may not realize is that this list was really just one of many lists of 14 Fundamentals (patent pending) that were penned at the time. For your perusal, I submit […]